Sunrise Before the Snow

The sunrise was gorgeous this morning. We've got a storm moving in and we're supposed to get anywhere from one inch of snow...to over a foot with strong winds and blizzard conditions. If you ever wonder why meteorology is so imprecise, I recommend reading The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver. At any rate, we'll see what tomorrow night brings!

Have a great weekend out there!

Slow Down

I really enjoy the album Our Darkest Days by the band Ignite. There is a song on that album titled Slow Down and one of the chorus lines is, "When the day is through all I want to do is slow down." This is kind of my theme for this post, or at least, I'm trying to make it so. Things have been terribly crazy lately in my life, and I haven't had the time or energy to post on the blog. I've been trying to make some choices where I can to slow myself down. Next Monday I should get some relief at work when the woman who will be reporting to me returns from maternity leave. I'm hoping that once she gets back and we're splitting the workload that I will have some energy left over to focus on my personal life once again.

My son's transition back to school after winter break was...bumpy. That has added another layer of complication to our already full lives as he's currently suspended from the bus. So we've had to rearrange schedules in order to get him to and from school each day. Luckily my current job is close enough that I can work from home in the mornings, drop him off, and still be at the office at a reasonable time. We're in the process of searching for a new counselor to try and get some additional help; as much for our parenting tool belts as for our son.

I've been using what little free-time I've been able to find to really catch up on my reading, especially the pile of physical books that have been sitting on my nightstand. I just finished reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. I had picked this one out to read last summer and just hadn't ever gotten to it. It was a very interesting and unique story and I would highly recommend it. I think I'm going to try to finish The Story of Edgar Sawtelle next, although I did start that one previously and am almost halfway through, it's been a bit of a slog. But it's supposed to really take off soon I've been told!

I've also been trying to focus more on my photography, but in a different way. I learned how to take photos on a SLR camera, notice there is no D in front of that. But in the rush of my busy life, I'd become somewhat dependent on the automatic settings in my current DSLR camera. I would often use the aperture priority mode, but I was allowing the camera to pick some of the settings for me so I could quickly take the photos that I wanted to use. I decided that wasn't providing me with the control and satisfaction that I wanted, so I've slowed down and starting shooting only in manual mode again. Not every image is turning out exactly as I'd like, but it's quickly coming back to me and it's just more fun.

I took a couple of pictures that didn't turn out great, so I played with the Topaz plug-in that I have for Lightroom to turn the photos into "paintings".

This picture was of the moon getting ready to go down behind the mountains while surrounded by clouds. I didn't use a fast enough shutter speed to capture the detail on the moon, but the other elements showed up nicely so turned it into a black and white painting.

This picture is of the last light of the sunset one evening. I didn't get the focus as crisp as I would have liked, so I turned this one into a "watercolor" that ended up sort of looking like stained glass.

Frosty

I realize that for many people, frost isn't a big deal. But here in Denver, we rarely have the kind of frost that covers the trees. Last night we had a frozen fog, and this morning when it was 12 degrees outside, everything was covered in a layer of white. It was absolutely stunning.

Last night's frozen fog.

Frost on a tree right before sunrise this morning.

The field behind the college near our house.

Another shot of the field behind the college.

 

Bright blue morning sky behind a tree dressed in white this morning.

I just had to share a few photos of our lovely, rare frosty morning!

My Brain Hurts

I'm still really enjoying my new job, and I'm still totally consumed by everything going on there and at home. I'm counting down the days until my co-worker returns from maternity leave and I can (hopefully) focus on a more select number of things. Right now my days are flying by between trying to work on the projects that are ultimately my job, and fixing all of the urgent issues that arise each day that will go back to my employee when she returns from leave.

We've been very busy at home also. We had a wedding to attend on New Year's Day, for a young woman who my husband taught in fourth grade, and yes, I'm feeling kind of old these days. It was so much fun though as we were there with several of our friends and their children. I just wish it had started earlier than 6:30 at night, because after being up late on New Year's Eve, I just didn't have much stamina the next evening.

The kids started back to school this week and that's been a challenging transition. They're tired because they had allowed themselves to get on a later sleeping schedule, so they're kind of grumpy and emotional this week. But it'll pass...until spring break anyway.

I don't even have very many photos to share right now, just a couple that I've managed to take recently.

Moon and star this morning on my way to work.

From an evening walk with my husband the other night.

Quick walk at lunch time yesterday. There are some nice views around my office.

That's really all there is for the check-in right now. I'm mentally exhausted every day when I get home, so I've been doing a great deal of reading out of real books to give my eyes a rest from screens. I'm still hopeful that come February I'll have a little more time and energy to post more regularly.